4 calves! Not every day.

[farmaholic]

Belly laughing. .... I.hope she doesn't read Agriville. Too funny.

Better watch the attitude, bulls get replaced more frequently than cows.

[Flatlander]

Radio Roy is something else, sell those calves early and sell them often. Did any of you see him do a charity auction with his buddy when they went by Jake and the Fat Man? Good clean humour.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Had a set of triplets this winter, except mine wasn't a happy ending. Cow got sick, treated for a couple weeks, got worse, went down, aborted triplets Late 2nd trimester. 3 fetuses for sure, I didn't sort through the debris, but there was another lump that looked like fetus size. Vet put her down, and I assumed he would look at the aborted fetuses, but didn't, so now I'll never know.

[boarderbloke]

Would those calves, carry in their genetics, a consistence for delivering multiple births, or rather successful multiple births?

Or is it just magic between the cow and bull, that wouldn't likely be passed down to the calves?

A little surprised the rancher would part with them.

[boarderbloke]

Quite a few 1.5 calves in the Weyburn museum.

[farmaholic]

The cow releases the eggs....bully only supplies the fertilizer. So twins(multiples) born that aren't identical are a result of multiple eggs. Twins(multiples) that are considered identical are a result of a single egg splitting and creating multiples.

I don't know if a bull which is a result of multiple births can pass on the ability to his female offspring to be apt to twin...

Heifers born as a twin to bulls can sometimes be freemartins(sterile females twinborn with males).

Can anyone confirm, or elaborate?

[newguy]

Twins can be found more often in certain breeds of cattle so there is genetics involved.not sure you would want to breed for twins as it is very hard on the cow and can create much more work for the farmer.Cows may breed later for the next year or cows can end up moving around real slow by the time they deliver.

[perfecho]

Heifers of twins are about %90 likely to be infertile...free martin.
Twins, multiples are more likely to be tangled up, sometimes mamma likes one more than another....a few good cows do a good job on twins...I would much rather have singles than twins, in a purebred operation at least.

[farmaholic]

Yeah, I remember presentation problems. Then if mama has enough milk for two mediocre calves or one good one. Yip, rebreeding issues... We had simmental cross that seemed to twin more than some others.

These quadruplets make a good story though.

Is there "something in the water" in the Weyburn area that would cause the deformities? Never had anything like that on our farm.